Roland KC-550 4-Channel Mixing 180 Watt Keyboard Amp (Discontinued)

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This 180 Watt amp comes with a 15" woofer for producing strong bass tones but also has an output for a subwoofer if you want additional power on the bottom end.

A handy feature is the dual balanced XLR outputs which allows you to send the signal over long snake cables to a PA mixing console without the need for a stereo DI box.

It sports an output select switch and a shape switch for making quick tonal adjustments.

It also has a stereo link I/O so you can chain two of these together for full stereo sound. Although you can get a single stereo amp for less than two of these, some people prefer to use two amps for stereo so they can be placed at a much larger distance apart than the two speakers of a stereo amp. It also has stereo aux inputs for backing tracks.

It's a versatile amp used as a small PA system, for monitoring, and also as a submixer on stage.

Customer reviews show that the Roland KC-550 is being used as a workhorse amp by keyboardists, bass players, electronic drummers and more.

Pros

Positive words that come up repeatedly in reviews are "loud", "crisp", "clear", and "versatile". And this is the case for professional and regularly gigging musicians playing 1 keyboard, multiple keyboards, and electronic drums. I even saw a couple of reviewers who said it had worked well for playing DJ sets - and that's even without adding a subwoofer.

Cons

There weren't really any consistent negatives reported although a couple of customer reviews said they had blown out the tweeters although they didn't say what kinds of instruments or sounds they were using it for. There was also a single complaint from a musician who plays a high-end digital piano and claimed it didn't reproduce piano sounds as much as he would have liked.

Overall

Based on the number and quality of customer reviews this appears to have been one of the most popular keyboard amps used by professional musicians, however it has been discontinued, so if you're looking for a new amp then take a look at what we recommend in our guide to The Best Keyboard Amps Under $1000.